Friday, April 6, 2007

China: corporate agribusiness vs small farmer

"...the introduction of industrial agriculture raises difficult questions about the status of land ownership in rural China. This has become an explosive issue in recent years as property has been seized to make way for factories and apartments. If farmers are bullied off their land to make way for larger operations, the advance of agribusiness could add to already simmering social tensions and accelerate migration to the fast-growing cities." Industrial agriculture has started to boom in China, at the hands of international corporations. This article in the Financial Times looks at how "the introduction of agribusiness could open the way to further abuses of small farmers that might aggravate rural poverty and social tensions". It does not however address other very critical issues associated with industrial agriculture, such as the dilapidation of resources and other deleterious environmental impacts. Worth reading.